1

Project Report

on

“ORTHOGONAL FREQUENCY DIVISION

MULTIPLEXING”

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award

of the degree of Bachelor of Technology
in
Electronics and Communication Engineering.

Submitted By

T.SREENATH(R151824)
B.RAMANAIDU(R151592)

Under the Guidence of

Mr. B.BHASKAR (Assistant professor)

AP IIIT,RK VALLEY,RGUKT

RAJIV GANDHI UNIVERSITY OF KNOWLEDGE

TECHNOLOGIES ANDHRA PRADESH
2020-2021
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The satisfaction that accompanies the successful completion of any task would be
incomplete without the mention of people whose ceaseless cooperation made it possible, whose
constant guidence and encouragement crown all the efforts with success.

We are extremely grateful to our respected Director, Prof. K. Sandhya Rani garu
for fostering an excellent academic climate in our institution.

We also express our sincere gratitude to our respected Head of the Department
Ms. G. Lakshmi Sireesha madam for her encouragement , over all guidence in viewing this
project as a good asset and effort in bringing out this project.

We would like to convey thanks to my Project guide at college Mr. B.BHASKAR

Asst.Prof for his guidence, encouragement, co-operation and kindness during the entire duration of
the course and academics.

Yours sincerely
T.SREENATH(R151824)
B.RAMANAIDU(R151592)
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DECLARATION

We are hereby declare that the Summer Internship project report entitled
“ORTHOGONAL FREQUENCY DIVISION MULTIPLEXING” submitted by
T.SREENATH(R151824) ,B.RAMANAIDU(R151592) to AP-IIIT, RGUKT, RK VALLEY in
partial fulfilment of the requirement for the award of Bachelor of Technology in Electronics &
Communication Engineering under the guidence of Mr. B.BHASKAR Asst.Prof . We also declare
that this project report is our original work and interpretations drawn therein are based on material
collected by us.
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INDEX

Title Page numbers

1. Abstract 5

2. Introduction 6

3. Evolution of OFDM 7

4. What is OFDM – The concept 8 - 10

5. How OFDM works 11 - 13

6. Simulated code 14 – 15

7. Results 16 - 17

8. OFDM advantages and disadvantages 18

9. Applications 19

10.Conclusion 20

11. References 21
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1. ABSTRACT

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is a modulation technique which is now

used in most new and emerging broadband wired and wireless communication systems because it is
an effective solution to intersymbol interference caused by a dispersive channel. Very recently a
number of re- searchers have shown that OFDM is also a promising technology for optical
communications.

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is well-known to be effective against

multipath distortion. It is a multicarrier communication scheme, in which the bandwidth of the
channel is divided into subcarriers and data symbols are modulated and transmitted on each
subcarrier simultaneously. So, that the OFDM system is able to mitigate
intersymbol interference (ISI).

OFDM, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing is a form of signal waveform or modulation

that provides some significant advantages for data links. Accordingly, Orthogonal Frequency
Division Multiplexing is used for many of the latest wide bandwidth and high data rate wireless
systems including Wi-Fi, cellular telecommunications and many more.

The fact that OFDM uses a large number of carriers, each carrying low bit rate data, means that it is
very resilient to selective fading, interference, and multipath effects, as well as providing a high
degree of spectral efficiency.

This paper provides the information about (OFDM) Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing,
its advantages and applications in the current world and its implementation.
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2. INTRODUCTION

During the last few decades, growth rate of wireless technology has been
accelerated to such a level that it has become ubiquitous.Wireless communication is having the
fastest growth phase in history because of unprecedented evolution in the field. The kid of wireless
communication is experiencing golden days due to various wireless standards such as Wi-Fi, GSM,
Wimax and LTE. These standards operate within lower microwave range (2-4GHz). Due to intrinsic
propagation losses at these frequencies and problem of multipath fading, it was necessary to provide
a solution which can offer robustness in multipath environments and against narrowband
interference and is efficient. OFDM, in all this aspects, proves to be an apt candidate by not only
providing high-capacity, high-speed wireless broadband multimedia networks but also coexists with
current and future systems.

To provide the service to multiple users, it is necessary to provide the access

based on time, frequency and code. As the multiple users to communicate with each other. Hence,
allotted resource is divided and provided it to large number of users. GSM in telecommunication is
using FDMA and CDMA access scheme. Presently OFDM is used for communication among the
multiple users which provide the high bandwidth. To provide high data rate the large band is
divided into multiple sub-carriers, which are modulated independently. BY multiple sub-carriers it
will reduce the interference and cross talk among the multiple user.Hence multiplexing
accommodates multiple users without interference and providing high data rates.

Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) Multiplexing basically

involves taking multiple signals and combining them into one signal for transmission over a single
medium, such as a telephone line. The input signals can be either analog or digital. The purpose of
multiplexing is to enable signals to be transmitted more efficiently over a given communication
channel, thereby decreasing transmission costs.
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3.Evolution of OFDM

The use of OFDM and multicarrier modulation in general has come to

the fore in recent years as it provides an ideal platform for wireless data communications
transmissions.
However the concept of OFDM technology was first investigated in
the 1960s and 1970s during research into methods for reducing interference between closely spaced
channels. In addition to this other requirements needed to achieve error free data transmission in the
presence of interference and selective propagation conditions.

Initially the use of OFDM required large levels of processing and

accordingly it was not viable for general use.Some of the first systems to adopt OFDM were digital
broadcasting - here OFDM was able to provide a highly reliable form of data transport over a
variety of signal path conditions. One example was DAB digital radio that was introduced in
Europe and other countries. It was Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation NRK that launched the
first service on 1st June 1995. OFDM was also used for digital television.

Later processing power increased as a result of rising integration

levels enabling OFDM to be considered for the 4G mobile communications systems which started
to be deployed from around 2009. Also OFDM was adopted for Wi-Fi and a variety of other
wireless data systems.
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4.What is OFDM? – The concept

OFDM is a special form of the frequency-division multiplexing (FDM) multicarrier

modulation technique.
Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing is a method of data transmission where a single
information stream is split among several closely spaced narrowband subchannel frequencies
instead of a single wideband channel frequency. It is mostly used in wireless data transmission but
may be employed in wired and fiber optic communication as well.

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM)

Modulation - a mapping of the information on changes in the carrier phase, frequency or

amplitude or combination .
Multiplexing - method of sharing a bandwidth with other independent data channels.
OFDM is a combination of modulation and multiplexing. Multiplexing generally refers to
independent signals, those produced by different sources. In OFDM the question of multiplexing is
applied to independent signals but these independent signals are a sub-set of the one main signal. In
OFDM the signal itself is first split into independent channels, modulated by data and then re-
multiplexed to create the OFDM carrier. OFDM is a special case of Frequency Division Multiplex
(FDM). In an OFDM scheme, a large number of orthogonal, overlapping, narrow band sub-carriers
are transmitted in parallel.These carriers divide the available transmission bandwidth. The
separation of the sub-carriers is such that there is a very compact spectral utilization.

OFDM is a form of multicarrier modulation. An OFDM signal consists of a number

of closely spaced modulated carriers. When modulation of any form – voice, data, etc. is applied to
a carrier, then sidebands spread out either side. It is necessary for a receiver to be able to receive the
whole signal to be able to successfully demodulate the data. As a result when signals are transmitted
close to one another they must be spaced so that the receiver can separate them using a filter and
there must be a guard band between them. This is not the case with OFDM. Although the sidebands
from each carrier overlap, they can still be received without the interference that might be expected
because they are orthogonal to each another. This is achieved by having the carrier spacing equal to
the reciprocal of the symbol period.

Fig 1
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Why OFDM:-

In a basic communication system, the data are modulated onto a single carrier
frequency. The available bandwidth is then totally occupied by each symbol. This kind of system
can lead to inter-symbol-interference (ISI) in case of frequency selective channel. The basic idea of
OFDM is to divide the available spectrum into several orthogonal subchannels so that each
narrowband subchannel experiences almost flat fading. Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing
(OFDM) is becoming the chosen modulation technique for wireless communications.
Multiple techniques schemes are used to allow many mobile users to share
simultaneously a finite amount of radio spectrum. The sharing is required to achieve high capacity
by simultaneously allocating the available bandwidth (or the available amount of channels) to
multiple users.
For the quality communications, this must be done without severe degradation
in the performance of the system. FDMA, TDMA and CDMA are the well known multiplexing
techniques used in wireless communication systems. While working with the wireless systems
using these techniques various problems encountered are (1) multi-path fading (2) time dispersion
which lead to intersymbol interference (ISI) (3)lower bit rate capacity (4)requirement of larger
transmit power for high bit rate and (5)less spectral efficiency. Disadvantage of FDMA technique is
its Bad Spectrum Usage. Disadvantages of TDMA technique is Multipath Delay spread problem. In
a typical terrestrial broadcasting, the transmitted signal arrives at the receiver using various paths of
different lengths. Since multiple versions of the signal interfere with each other, it becomes difficult
to extract the original information. The use of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)
technique provides better solution for the above mentioned problems.

As an analogy, a FDM channel is like water flow out of a faucet, a whole bunch of water
coming all in one stream; In contrast the OFDM signal is like a shower from which same amount of
water will come as a lot of small streams. In a faucet all water comes in one big stream and cannot
be sub-divided. OFDM shower is made up of a lot of little streams.

Fig 2 : A Regular-FDM single carrier Fig 3 : Orthogonal-FDM

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The advantage one over the other is that if I put my thumb over the faucet hole, I can stop the water
flow but I cannot do the same for the shower. So although both do the same thing, they respond
differently to interference. Both methods carry the exact same amount of data. But in case of any
interfere to some of these small streams, only some part of data in the OFDM method will suffer.
These small streams when seen as signals are called the sub-carriers in an and they must be
orthogonal for this idea to work.

Orthogonality:-
In OFDM, the subcarrier frequencies are chosen so that the subcarriers are orthogonal
to each other, meaning that crosstalk between the sub-channels is eliminated and inter-carrier guard
bands are not required. This greatly simplifies the design of both the transmitter and the receiver;
unlike conventional FDM.

The Importance of Orthogonally Spaced Subcarriers

The OFDM signal can be described as a set of closely spaced FDM subcarriers. In
the frequency domain, each transmitted subcarrier results in a sinc function spectrum with side
lobes that produce overlapping spectra between subcarriers, see "OFDM Signal Frequency Spectra"
figure below. This results in subcarrier interference except at orthogonally spaced frequencies. At
orthogonal frequencies, the individual peaks of subcarriers all line up with the nulls of the other
subcarriers. This overlap of spectral energy does not interfere with the system’s ability to recover
the original signal. The receiver multiplies (i.e., correlates) the incoming signal by the known set of
sinusoids to recover the original set of bits sent.

Fig: 4 OFDM Signal Frequency Spectra

The use of orthogonal subcarriers allows more subcarriers per bandwidth resulting in
an increase in spectral efficiency. In a perfect OFDM signal, Orthogonality prevents interference
between overlapping carriers. In FDM systems, any overlap in the spectrums of adjacent signals
will result in interference.
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5.How OFDM works?

Fig : 5

In OFDM block diagram basically two parts : Transmitter and Receiver.

Assume that the system is operating on the downlink so that the transmitter is in
the Base Station and receiver is in the mobile. Base Station is sending streams of bits to different
mobile. It modulates each bit stream independently, using a different modulation scheme then
passes each symbol stream through a serial-to-parallel converter to divide it into sub-streams. The
number of sub-streams for each mobile depends on the data rate. The resulting information is the
amplitude and phase of each sub-carrier in the form of a function of frequency. We can compute the
in-phase and quadrature components of the corresponding time-domain waveform by passing it
through an inverse FFT. This can be digitized, filtered and mixed up to radio frequency for
transmission. The mobile reverse the process, starts by sampling the incoming signals, filtering it,
and converting it down to baseband. After that passes the data through a forward FFT to recover the
amplitude and phase of each sub-carrier. Using this knowledge, the mobile selects the require sub-
carriers, recover the transmitted information and discarding the reminder.

1. Transmitter
Transmitter takes the data from the source , converts it into parallel form, modulates it and
finally performs the IIFT operation. Transmitter section is further divided into various subsystems
as follows :
• Reading data from outside

MATLAB provides a platform to get random input from rand function. This data will be
in decimal format. This data needs to convert into serial form before applying as an input
to transmitter.
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• serial to parallel conversion

The data which will be given to serial to parallel converter, should be single stream of
binary values. The blocks are designed such a way that they save the streams of data in
memory and extract them one by one to produce single stream of data. The preceding
block is 16-QAM modulation, which will take data of 4 bits in parallel and map it to a
complex symbols.
• 16 – QAM modulation

QAM modulation input symbols are mapped to a specific complex numbers according to
a constellation diagram

3 1110 1010
0010 0100

0011 0111 1 1011

1111

-3 -1 1 3

0001 0101 -1 1101 1001

0000 0110 1100 1000

-3

Fig : 6

• IFFT module

FFT is the key operation for the formation of OFDM symbols. 64-point IFFT operation
needs to be performed for the objective to be achieved.

2. Receiver
The receiver receives data, down-converts it, performs FFT operation. After FFT it performs
16-QAM de-mapping to convert parallel data into serial form. Receiver section is divided in to
various subsystems as follows:
• FFT Operation

Input to receiver is complex values which were transmitted from of 16-point IFFT block.
Proper synchronization is mandatory with data for correct operation of FFT.
• 16 – QAM demodulation

Error correction is must in the real time applications to combat the effect of noise. The
 13

next process is to concate the real and imaginary part of signal. The concated signal is
given to the DQAM ROM block as an address.
• parallel to serial converter

Output of the 16-QAM demodulator is frames of 4 bit . To convert the received data in
serial form, the parallel to serial converter is implemented.
 14

6.Simulated code
clc;
clear all;
fprintf('******************* OFDM *********************\n\n\n');
random = randi([0,15],1,8); % random generator of input
data = dec2bin(random,4); % input data in binary format (4 bits)
fprintf('The random input in binary format\n\n');
disp(data);
fprintf('----------------------------\n');
fprintf('----------------------------\n');
for i = 1 : 8 % after modulation assigning the constellation points
z1 = [data(i,1),data(i,2)];
switch z1
case dec2bin(0,2)
X_re = -3;
case dec2bin(1,2)
X_re = -1;
case dec2bin(2,2)
X_re = 3;
case dec2bin(3,2)
X_re = 1;
end
z2 = [data(i,3),data(i,4)];
switch z2
case dec2bin(0,2)
X_im = -3j;
case dec2bin(1,2)
X_im = -1j;
case dec2bin(2,2)
X_im = 3j;
case dec2bin(3,2)
X_im = 1j;
end
X(i) = X_re + X_im;
end
fprintf('\n');
fprintf('Constellation points of the input data\n\n');
disp(X);
fprintf('\n')

fprintf('IFFT of the given input data:\n\n');

x = ifft(X); %ifft of input data
disp(x);
fprintf('\n');

out = awgn(x,30); % adding awgn as a channel effects to the input

% out is the received signal at receiver
fprintf('Received data at the receiver\n\n');
disp(out);
fprintf('\n');

yn = fft(out); % fft of received signal

fprintf('FFT of the received signal:\n\n');
 15

disp(yn);
fprintf('\n');

y = round(yn);

fprintf('Received signal :\n\n');

for i = 1:8 % displaying the output
y_re = real(y(i));
switch y_re
case -3
out1 = dec2bin(0,2);
case -1
out1 = dec2bin(1,2);
case 3
out1 = dec2bin(2,2);
case 1
out1 = dec2bin(3,2);
end
y_im = imag(y(i));
switch y_im
case -3
out2 = dec2bin(0,2);
case -1
out2 = dec2bin(1,2);
case 3
out2 = dec2bin(2,2);
case 1
out2 = dec2bin(3,2);
end
output = [out1 out2];
fprintf('\t\t');
disp(output);
end
fprintf('\n**************** Thank you *********************\n');
 16

7.Results

Fig 7 : Random input bit stream

Fig 8 : Constellation points of input and ifft of input data

Fig 9 : Received data from channel and fft of the received data
 17

Fig 10 :Received signal

 18

8. OFDM advantages & disadvantages

OFDM advantages
OFDM has been used in many high data rate wireless systems because of the many advantages it
provides.
• Immunity to selective fading: One of the main advantages of OFDM is that is more
resistant to frequency selective fading than single carrier systems because it divides the
overall channel into multiple narrowband signals that are affected individually as flat fading
sub-channels.
• Resilience to interference: Interference appearing on a channel may be bandwidth limited
and in this way will not affect all the sub-channels. This means that not all the data is lost.
• Spectrum efficiency: Using close-spaced overlapping sub-carriers, a significant OFDM
advantage is that it makes efficient use of the available spectrum.
• Resilient to ISI: Another advantage of OFDM is that it is very resilient to inter-symbol and
inter-frame interference. This results from the low data rate on each of the sub-channels.
• Resilient to narrow-band effects: Using adequate channel coding and interleaving it is
possible to recover symbols lost due to the frequency selectivity of the channel and narrow
band interference. Not all the data is lost.
• Simpler channel equalisation: One of the issues with CDMA systems was the complexity
of the channel equalisation which had to be applied across the whole channel. An advantage
of OFDM is that using multiple sub-channels, the channel equalization becomes much
simpler.
OFDM disadvantages
Whilst OFDM has been widely used, there are still a few disadvantages to its use which need to be
addressed when considering its use.
• High peak to average power ratio: An OFDM signal has a noise like amplitude variation
and has a relatively high large dynamic range, or peak to average power ratio. This impacts
the RF amplifier efficiency as the amplifiers need to be linear and accommodate the large
amplitude variations and these factors mean the amplifier cannot operate with a high
efficiency level.
• Sensitive to carrier offset and drift: Another disadvantage of OFDM is that is sensitive to
carrier frequency offset and drift. Single carrier systems are less sensitive.

OFDM, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing has gained a significant presence in the
wireless market place. The combination of high data capacity, high spectral efficiency, and its
resilience to interference as a result of multi-path effects means that it is ideal for the high data
applications that have become a major factor in today's communications scene.
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9. Applications

1. In Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB)

Digital Audio Broadcasthing(DAB) is a digital radio technology for broadcasting radio
stations.
2. In DVB-H: Digital Broadcast Services to Handheld Devices
Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) is a set of internationally accepted standards for
digital television. DVB-H is one of the established mobile TV formats. It permits
transmission of very large files and can operate on 5, 6, 7 or 8 MHz bandwidth

3. In 4G Mobile Communication
4G is the short name for fourth-generation wireless, the stage of broadband mobile
communications that supersedes 3G (third-generation wireless) and is the predecessor of
5G (fifth-generation wireless).
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10. Conclusion
An OFDM system is successfully simulated using MATLAB in this work. All major
components ,concept and feasibilituy of OFDM system are covered. OFDM, orthogonal frequency-
division multiplexing, plays a significant role in modern telecommunications, ranging from its use
in DSL-modem technology to Wi-Fi wireless systems. Work underway in next-generation mobile
wireless systems exploits the advantages of using OFDM techniques as well.
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11. References
1) What is OFDM: Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing » Electronics Notes
2) https://www.slideshare.net/ggnrandhawa/orthogonal-frequency-division-multiplexing-ofdm
3) https://slideplayer.com/slide/4401172/
4) https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/53188968.pdf
5) https://www.ecstuff4u.com/2018/01/ofdm.html
6) https://sci-hub.do/https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6780121